Microsoft Office 95
Developer(s)Microsoft
Initial releaseAugust 24, 1995; 28 years ago (1995-08-24)[1]
Final release
7.0b / October 7, 1999; 24 years ago (1999-10-07)[2]
Operating systemWindows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me[3]
PlatformIA-32
PredecessorMicrosoft Office 4.2 (1994)
SuccessorMicrosoft Office 97 (1996)
Standard(s)OLE 2.0[4]
TypeOffice suite
LicenseProprietary commercial software
Websitetechnet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc760145.aspx Edit this on Wikidata

Microsoft Office 95 (version 7.0)[a] is a major release of Microsoft Office, released by Microsoft on August 24, 1995,[5] shortly after the completion of Windows 95. It is the successor to both Office 4.2 and 4.3 including their Windows NT versions. While designed specifically for Windows 95, it is compatible with Windows NT 4.0, which debuted in 1996. As it is a 32-bit program suite, it does not run on Windows 3.x or earlier versions of Windows, which use a 16-bit architecture. It is not officially supported on Windows NT 3.1 or Windows NT 3.5. It is officially supported on Windows NT 4.0, Windows Me, and Windows 2000.[3] Support for Windows XP or later versions of Windows was never officially provided.

Office 95 was succeeded by Office 97 on November 19, 1996. Support for Microsoft Office 95 ended on December 31, 2001, the same day as Windows 95.[6] It is the last version of Microsoft Office to support Windows NT 3.51 RTM–SP4; as the following version, Microsoft Office 97 only supports Windows NT 3.51 SP5 or later.

Features

Microsoft Office 95 includes six applications: Word (a word processor), Excel (a spreadsheet editor), PowerPoint (a presentation program), Access (a database management system), Schedule+ (a time management app) and Binder (a program for binding the work of the mentioned apps together). The CD-ROM version includes Microsoft Bookshelf.

True to its namesake, this suite is designed specifically for Windows 95. Previously, Microsoft had released Office 4.2 for Windows NT for several architectures,[7] which included 32‑bit Word 6.0 for Windows NT and Excel 5.0 for Windows NT,[8] but PowerPoint 4.0 and the Office Manager were 16‑bit. With Office for Windows 95, all components in the suite were 32-bit. All the Office 95 programs are OLE 2-enabled, meaning that they allow interoperability between themselves and other applications that support the protocol. Binder uses this protocol to bind OLE objects together.[4]

Office for Windows 95 moves the version number of its applications to 7.0 to match Word's version number. Other components bear the same version numbers to show that they are contemporaries, although their predecessors are not version 6.0. The previous versions of components are Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0, Schedule+ 1.0 and Access 2.0. Binder had no predecessor at the time.

The Office 95 programs utilize a two-tone gradient in the title bar at the top of the window, gradually turning from black at the left side to dark blue at the right. At the time, this was unique to Office 95; no other program running under Windows 95 or Windows NT utilized gradient title bars. This feature was eventually incorporated into the shell of Windows 98 and later, which would allow customizable gradient colors and extend the feature to include dialog boxes as well.

Microsoft Excel contains an easter egg, a hidden Doom–like game called Hall of Tortured Souls crediting the application's writers.[9]

Contemporaneous components

Additional programs have been marketed as "compatible with Microsoft Office 95":

Other contemporaneous Microsoft products include:

Editions

Computer icons of the components Microsoft Office 95 Pro: From left to right, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Schedule+ and Binder

Office 95 is available in two versions. They contain the following applications:[11]

Comparison of Office 95 editions
Application Standard Edition Professional Edition
Word[12] Yes Yes
Excel[13] Yes Yes
PowerPoint[14] Yes Yes
Schedule+[15] Yes Yes
Binder[16] Yes Yes
Access[17] No Yes
Bookshelf[18] No On CD-ROM version only

Updates

Two updated versions, 7.0a[19] and 7.0b[2] were released to fix bugs in the applications, including a fix for a screen redraw problem in PowerPoint. The updates could be ordered from Microsoft Support. A downloadable update released in 1999 addresses issues related to the Year 2000 problem.[20]

Issues

Versions 3.0 and 3.5 of the Jet Database Engine, used by Access for Windows 95 (Access 7.0) and the later released Access 97 respectively, have a critical issue which makes these versions of Access unusable on a computer with more than 1 GB of memory.[21] While this problem has been fixed for Jet 3.5/Access 97, it has never been fixed for Jet 3.0 or Access 95.

System requirements

Microsoft Office 95 requires a 386DX or higher CPU, 8 MB of RAM, and either Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51 for typical use. Regarding hard disk space, compact installations require 28 MB, "typical" installations require 55 MB, and full installations require 88 MB.[3]

Notes

  1. ^ Also known as Microsoft Office for Windows 95

References

  1. ^ "Microsoft Office 95 and Windows 95 Scheduled to Be Available Simultaneously". PR Newswire. Cision. July 10, 1995. Archived from the original on December 6, 2015. Retrieved August 21, 2019 – via TheFreeLibrary.com.
  2. ^ a b "OFF95: Summary List of Fixed Bugs in Microsoft Office Version 7.0b (Revision 1.3)". Microsoft. July 18, 2007. Archived from the original on July 30, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c "Microsoft Office 95 (v. 7.0) - Box Pack - 1 User". CNET. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on July 29, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Solomon, Christine (1996). Developing Applications with Microsoft Office 95 (Second ed.). Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press. ISBN 9781556158988.
  5. ^ Zisman, Alan (October 1995). "This Suite Smells of Success: MS Office 95 Review of New Features". Zisman.ca. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  6. ^ "Microsoft Office Products Support Lifecycle FAQ". Microsoft. April 1, 2013. Archived from the original on January 10, 2006. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
  7. ^ "Microsoft Readies Supporting Versions of Microsoft Excel and Word for Windows NT The PowerPC" (Press release). Redmond, Washington: Farlex. PR Newswire. June 12, 1995. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved May 2, 2013 – via TheFreeLibrary.com.
  8. ^ "Microsoft Announced Word 6.0 and Excel 5.0 for Windows NT Workstation" (Press release). Dallas, Texas: Farlex. PR Newswire. September 19, 1994. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved May 2, 2013 – via TheFreeLibrary.com.
  9. ^ "Messages from the Hall of Tortured Souls". The Economist. December 16, 1999. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020.
  10. ^ "Microsoft Announces Small Business Financial Manager" (Press release). Redmond, Washington: Microsoft. February 6, 1996. Archived from the original on July 29, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
  11. ^ Microsoft Press, Issue #3 1997, sales catalogue Part No. 098-69985
  12. ^ Microsoft Word for Windows 95 - Step by Step. 1995. ISBN 1-55615-828-9.
  13. ^ Microsoft Excel for Windows 95 - Step by Step. 1995. ISBN 1-55615-825-4.
  14. ^ Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 95 - Step by Step. 1995. ISBN 1-55615-829-7.
  15. ^ "TOC - 10 Minute Guide to Schedule+ for Windows 95". ssuet.edu.pk. June 21, 2002. Archived from the original on June 21, 2002. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  16. ^ "Description of Office Binder Support with Office 2003 and Office XP Products". Microsoft. February 5, 2007. Archived from the original on March 6, 2007. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  17. ^ Viescas, John L. (1996). Running Microsoft Access for Windows 95. ISBN 1-55615-886-6.
  18. ^ Microsoft Bookshelf for Windows 95. Microsoft Press. August 1995. ISBN 978-1-57231-159-6.
  19. ^ "List of Fixed Bugs in Word 7.0a for Windows 95 (Revision 1.1)". Microsoft Support. Microsoft. August 31, 2005. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  20. ^ Luening, Erich (March 17, 1997). "Microsoft Offers Y2K Patch for Office 95". CNET. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on October 15, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  21. ^ ""Out of Memory" Error Starting Microsoft Access" (5.1 ed.). Microsoft. January 19, 2007. Archived from the original on August 25, 2014. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
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